It has been confirmed that the mainstream Tesla Model 3 will now enter "full production" in 2018.

Earlier this month, at the US Energy Information Administration's 2015 Energy Conference in Washington, DC, Jeffrey Brian Straubel, chief technical officer at Tesla, revealed that the Model 3 will feature both sedan and crossover body styles.

InsideEVs noticed that one of his slides at the conference (below) had the Model 3 as "planned for 2018".

After the website published the slide and an associated article, Ricardo Reyes, Tesla's chief communications officer, tweeted: "Contrary to speculative blogger reports, we still plan to show Model 3 in 2016 and begin production in 2017."

A company spokesperson later told the blog that the Model 3 is still on target to enter production by late 2017. The representative claimed that the slide at the conference was meant to refer to the Model 3 beginning "full production" in 2018.

Above: Tesla slide from 2015 EIA Energy Conference in Washington, DC, this month. First published on InsideEVs.

In the US, the Model 3 will have a price tag of around US$35,000 ($45,600). To achieve this target price, the Model 3 will have a lithium-ion battery with a range of around 320 kilometres. The company's larger and more expensive Model S is capable of between 440 and 550km, depending on the model.